O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do such wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them. -Isaiah 25:1 NLT

When we are going through a period of high stress or deep worry, being told not to worry can be downright impossible. But praising God is the simplest and most effective way to take our minds off the cares of the world around us and lift them to the One who can ease the burdens. When life gets hard, the stress piles on, and the demands get louder, it’s easy to stay in the moment and just focus on whatever we are faced with. Unfortunately, though, this just leads to more stress, worry, and basically leaves us frazzled and worn out. But if we could just get in the practice of stepping back and praising God in the middle of the mess, we could finally feel times of freedom. Express gratitude to Him for being there in the clutter with you. Thank Him for the ability to come to Him and lay the burdens at His feet. Reflect on the fact that He has all the power to bring you peace. Meditate on the fact that He is good and has good for you. The circumstances may look exactly as they did before, but by adjusting the focus of our minds to God and who He is in our lives, we can gain a renewed peace of mind and reassurance while still going through them.

There is always going to be a bigger plan where we don’t get to see and details that we know nothing about. We must praise Him for working in ways we will never know and trust that there is a reason behind it all. Stretching our minds past the difficulties to gaze up at Jesus will not always be easy, but it will definitely be worth it.

He is our Rock, our Fortress, and our Helper. When my heart breaks at the world around me and nothing seems to make sense, I pray. He is our Guide, our Shield, and our Savior. He is bigger than anything we will ever face and He knows how the story ends. We can trust Him.